Custody
by Shauds02
Summary: One night a boy tries to steal Batman's tires. The next night, Bruce Wayne decides he's not sending that boy back into the system. It takes another night for Bruce to realize that someone else has already beaten him to the chase. Talia found Jason first, Bruce is not happy.


It's the last thing Bruce expects to find when he returns to his car that night, to find it standing on cinderblocks, and the tiny child returning to finish the job is among the last of those he would have expected as being the perpetrator. He hadn't expected to find Talia watching the whole thing either.

When he takes the child to Ma Gunn's home for troubled boys, he reasons that Jason will be more comfortable if Bruce doesn't take him to far from the area he's familiar with, that he'll be less likely to run while Bruce does the necessary background checks. Despite Talia's assurances that the Shadows have no interest in the boy, he can't be too careful, so Bruce digs a lot deeper than he should; down to the boys surprising school records and the contradictory arrest records from later years.

It takes him one day to come to a decision that he probably should have spent a lot more time considering. **Not** a replacement for Dick, no matter what it is Talia thinks, and it takes him two days to lose the boy, **less** than two days.

When he hears about the altercation at the museum involving Faye Gunn and an assortment of her students, Bruce almost forgets to finish chewing his post-patrol sandwich, suits up and makes for the GCPD precinct where she was being held almost immediately.

Jason wasn't with them, she says, he left the school the night before they'd planned for the robbery, not even a full day since Bruce had left him there, damnit.

Bruce's next stop is Jason's squat, but there's no sign of the boy, and by now it's already been taken over by a group of girls small enough to get up the rusty fire-escape without it collapsing under them. None of them has seen a child here, and despite the fact that Bruce never suggested anything of the sort, they are adamant that they will not be leaving. Bruce leaves them the little cash he has with him along with the card for a reputable shelter.

The three cars he finds on cement blocks are the work of adults.

There is no sign of Jason Todd anywhere in either Park Row or Crown Point where Bruce widens his search to when all other leads have run dry. Many people know of the boy, but as Bruce's earlier check had confirmed, he's not affiliated with any of the gangs, so no one cares enough to notice him.

At the cave he sets up facial recognition software to search every wireless camera in the city, though he knows there's precious little chance they'll find anything in the poorer depths of the city where such things are scarce. While it runs, in a last ditch effort in the likely event it proves fruitless, he plans on going back to the Gotham's lockup's and check that they haven't 'missed' any arrest reports.

He gets as far as the HQ and Gordon's office before Alfred calls him with a positive match. Jason was at the Airport the night he went missing. Bruce's head is filled with horrific images of what that could mean, of who would have take the boy there and the sheer impossibility of finding him if he'd actually boarded a plane.

'… _in the presence of Miss al Ghul, if I'm not mistaken, sir.'_

Bruce isn't sure if the sound that leaves his mouth is a sigh, or a growl, going off Jim's reaction; it could be either.

000

"What have you done Talia?" Bruce says as soon as the dial tone ends. He's back in the cave, the cowl pulled down, but he hasn't taken the suit off yet, just in case he needs to leave for Dubai in a hurry.

' _Scowling that way will have you prematurely aged, Beloved.'_ She sounds completely unbothered, and Bruce makes a note to check for any surveillance that might have been planted in his cave. The chances are low, but after this he's not dismissing them again.

"Where's the boy?"

He tries to keep his voice even, but there's a tension there he knows he can't hide. If she's taken him to one of Ras' **boot camps** , he's going to…

' _Surely you've located us by now.'_ He has, but he can hear barking, and the trace puts her in a hotel, Bruce's scowl deepens and he begins running logistics on the satellite. _'I can assure you he's being kept well, if that is your concern.'_

"Prove it."

Talia sighs, heavy and weary as though Bruce is being a difficult child. _'Jason,'_ her voice is muffled when she calls him, _'The Batman requests a word with you.'_ The high voice of a child replies, his words indecipherable.

' _Uh, hi.'_ It's the boy, just a second later. _'It's uh, Jason speaking.'_

"Hello Jason." Bruce sinks into his chair and holds back his relieved sigh. "How have you been?

' _Fore or after ya left me with that batty old lady?'_ He asks bitterness almost masking the underlying hurt in his voice.

"That was an accident, and it was only ever meant to be temporary." Bruce says, the tracer does indeed put them in the hotel, by now Bruce could narrow it down to the room if he wanted to, he doesn't. "I've been busy on this end setting up a more permanent home for you."

' _Kid_ ** _my_** _age, and with a record?'_ He snorts, but his voice is soft when he says. _'Nah, I don't think so.'_

"Don't bet on it Champ." Bruce says, keeping his tone light. "This is a family that really wants you, I'm positive."

' _Why'd ya even care?'_ Jason says in his soft little voice, then same one he'd used when Bruce had gotten him an extra burger at the drive-thru.

"Because I'm Batman." Bruce says imperiously, sure all the sincerity in the world will only make him seem more suspicious. His bet pays off and there's an incredulous, but amused snort from Jason. "Now, tell me how things have been since that woman picked you up?"

There's a pause, just long enough for Bruce to wonder if Jason's going to answer him at all, and then the boy launches into a rambling recount of presumably everything that's happened to him since Talia picked him up in Gotham that's hard for Bruce to follow. The gist of what Bruce gets out of it, is that Talia's cool for not tossing him out of her plane apparently? The hotel has unlimited room service – Talia has a limitless credit card, more likely – there are worms on the menu and Jason finds that both disgusting and the best thing ever. Everything in the hotel is soft, and that Talia's been teaching him some martial arts that Bruce isn't sure a boy that age should be learning.

' _Wouldna got in the car 'f I din't think she worked for ya, but she's_ ** _way_** _cool, guess I shouldna tossed so many rocks, huh?'_

"Jason, I'm glad you're having fun, but you need to promise you won't be getting into cars with people you don't know, no matter who they say they work for." Bruce says finally turning from the screen of the batcomputer, he hasn't noticed until now how much he's strained his eyes over the course of his search, the search that he'd been terrified could have ended very differently, maybe would have if Talia hadn't picked Jason up. "… and you shouldn't be throwing rocks either."

' _But I got in_ ** _your_** _car too.'_

"That's different."

' _How?'_

"Because…" Bruce's brain stalls. Saying because he's Batman might give him the idea that getting into a car with anyone dressed as a superhero is fine too. Jason is helpfully quiet while Bruce tries to come up with an answer, just humming lightly under him breath while he waits. "Because it is."

' _I dunno, she don't wear s'much leather as you, and she told me that sometimes you…'_

' _Go and see how far along your order is.'_ Talia's voice cuts into Jason's, and Bruce isn't sure whether to be grateful or not when Jason chirps and affirmative, and is gone. _'You're satisfied that I haven't turned the child over to my father?'_

"You need to bring him back Talia," Bruce says. "Now. He's not safe with you." It doesn't matter how young the child is, if Ras knows that Bruce was looking into him, that Talia took him for however brief a time, then Ras will become interested too, and even Talia wouldn't argue that the Shadows are a good place for a child.

' _And you believe he was_ ** _safe_** _where I found him?'_ She's asks. _'Bloody on the streets of your city? In a_ ** _home_** _he has no choice but to run from? How long until you've sorted through your law's ridiculous bureaucracy? Were that to happen, how certain would you be to find him again?'_

"The process only takes a few weeks, I'm perfectly capable of monitoring the whereabouts of a **child for that long** ".

' _As you've demonstrated so well these past days,'_ Talia's voice is dry and Bruce can imagine the expression on her face, as close to rolling her eyes as Talia gets. _'Make your arrangements, and when I find them satisfactory, I will return Jason to you, for now, I_ ** _am_** _now at a holiday destination, and my lunch has just arrived.'_

"Don't you d..."

' _Sleep well, Beloved'._

The phone beeps shrilly in his ear, and has to spend a full minute calming his breathing enough that he doesn't throw the thing against the cave wall. Then he sets it aside – a good couple of feet from his immediate reach – and turns back to the computer. Cutting too many corners will raise a swath of red flag, he'd learned that the hard way with Dick but if there are anymore corners he can safely cut, he's going to find them.

Four hours later, his phone flashes with an email notification, he's not sure whether it's an act of kindness or just adding insult to injury when he opens it to find an attached picture of the boy clean, free of injury, and surrounded by candy wrappers, sleeping soundly on a sofa.

000

"The application's gone through bring him back."

' _You're certain you've set aside enough space? I might say his collection is becoming a library at this point, along with… other items.'_

"I have more than enough space for whatever you've bought him." Whether Bruce thinks any of those things are appropriate for a child is another discussion entirely.

' _And what of the school? He is very much looking forward to it.'_

"Everything's ready Talia."

' _I'm not sure if he's mentioned the dog?'_

"What?"

000

Three weeks and two dozen phone calls from when he'd tried to steal Bruce's tires, Jason arrives at the manor. He's accompanied by Talia, who's kneeling down and whispering too softly for Bruce to hear, packs of things that, when Bruce checks, are not suitable for children – he wants to asks how the boy convinced Talia to get him a battleaxe too big for him to lift, but he doubts Talia would have needed much convincing – a small library, and yes, the dog.

"Talia." Bruce greets her.

"Beloved." She smiles up him as she stands and brushes the creases out of her shirt.

Bruce grunts, then brings his attention to Jason. "Hey there Champ, it's been a while." He extends a hand to the boy.

"I just named her dog." Jason ignores the hand completely, doesn't break eye contact with Bruce, no outward reaction to being greeted by Bruce Wayne instead of Batman, they hadn't tried to keep it from him, but Bruce had been expecting some skepticism when they met in person again. "We found her at the airport."

Dog is still a scrappy little brown thing of indeterminable breed, she looks up at Bruce with distrustful eyes and a low, protective growl.

"Of course," Bruce says and awkwardly scratches the back of the animal's head. "I hope she likes it here."

"Yeah." Jason looks at Bruce then back at Talia, then clutches Dog a little more tightly to his chest. "Bye I guess." He shuffles his feet

"I'll contact you soon." Talia gently caresses the back of Jason's head, then she gets into her car, and she's gone.

Jason watches the car in silence until the heavy steel gate swing shut behind her, looking like his dog's been diagnosed with a terminal illness."

"Come on." Bruce rests his hand on Jason's shoulder and the boy looks up at him. "Let's see how she likes her new accommodations."

Jason hesitates just moment before he turns and trots after Bruce. "I still got some worms; ya wanna try 'em?"

"Maybe after dinner, Alfred won't be happy if we spoil our appetites."


End file.
